Poor Danny Dyer. He’s already been having a pretty terrible month, and now it seems he’s off to prison.
Well, his EastEnders character Mick Carter is. As the famous ‘doof-doofs’ sounded last night, the landlord appeared to have accepted his fate and told daughter-in-law Whitney “I’m going to prison.”
Mick had just been turned down for a loan with the bank, and now knows he has no way to pay the builders for the repair work at the pub, or even begin to re-pay the £10 grand fine he was ordered to pay thanks to Aunt Babe’s illegal boozy breakfast scam.
Of course, in real life, actor Danny is currently on a break from the show in South Africa. And one newspaper reported that the writers had to come up with the jail storyline quickly to explain his unexplained absence.
A source told The Sun: “Some said the prison storyline is by far the easiest way of cutting him out of the show at such short notice.
“Other ideas were tabled, but they wanted something to tie in with Mick’s turbulent life on the Square.
“And it will mean Danny could stay away for as long as he needs to recuperate and get back to work at which point Mick can be released from jail.”
It’s believed that show bosses told Danny to take a break last month, as he was exhausted from a gruelling work schedule.
The Sun reported that his behaviour had been causing problems on set, and that bosses were concerned about his partying, although an EastEnders spokesperson denied their claims and said the break was Danny’s choice.
Prison definitely isn’t Mick’s choice, but that could be where he’s headed.
Next week’s episodes will see him run out of options, and mum Shirley come up with her own drastic plan to try and keep Mick out of the nick…